NLV Police withholds cop’s name in shooting

Jen Lawson

Friday, April 30, 2004 | 11 a.m.

The North Las Vegas Police Department is refusing to release the name of an officer who shot and killed a suspect Tuesday while attempting to serve a search warrant in connection with a narcotics investigation, and plans to try to keep the officer's identity secret during the upcoming coroner's inquest.

Officer Tim Bedwell, spokesman for the department, said publicizing the identity of the officer would compromise his safety. Civil libertarians, however, say the public has a right to know which police officers are killing people and secrecy will only cause more suspicion.

Tuesday's shooting occurred about 1:50 p.m. in an apartment in the 500 block of North 15th Street near Bonanza Road and Maryland Parkway in Las Vegas.

Police said they often cross their jurisdiction's boundaries in the valley if necessary when investigating crimes.

A man identified as 44-year-old Cipriano Gerardo Lopez -- he was initially identified by the coroner's office as Rogelio Lopez but that name was an alias -- fired a shot at the officers, Bedwell said.

One of the officers fired back, inflicting injuries from which Lopez later died.

Police later found 100 grams of methamphetamine and 144 grams of marijuana in the apartment along with measuring scales and other paraphernalia.

Two women who were in the apartment when the shooting occurred were detained, questioned and released, but Bedwell said drug-related charges may be filed against them.

Local police normally release the names of officers who have killed people 48 hours after the deaths.

This case is an exception, Bedwell said, because "these guys do a very dangerous job and if his name and picture got out there his life and other peoples' lives could be at risk. We're just protecting him."

The officer who shot Lopez and the other officers who went to the apartment to serve the search warrant were wearing masks to conceal their identities, he said.

The safety of other officers and the integrity of ongoing criminal cases could also be in jeopardy if the officer's cover is blown, Bedwell said. The officer is a six-year veteran of the department and had never previously fired his weapon in the line of duty, he said.

"We have nothing to hide. This is a very clean shooting," Bedwell said. "But peoples' lives are at stake here ... These officers are involved in some very high-risk stuff."

Tim Apolito, professor of criminal justice at the University of Dayton, a former cop and an authority on police shootings, said if the actions of the police officer don't appear to be criminal, the agency doesn't have any responsibility to release his name.

But whether the officer's actions were proper is yet to be determined. A coroner's inquest jury will determine whether the homicide was justified, excusable or criminal. The inquest is tentatively scheduled for May 28.

The police department will be trying to keep the officers' identity a secret during the inquest proceeding as well, Bedwell said. However, police officials don't expect to fight in court to hide the officer's identity.

"If the prosecutors disagree, that's up to them," he said. "We have no control over what happens at a coroner's inquest, but our preference is that it not be revealed."

Coroner's inquests generally follow a trial format and include open-court style testimony from the officer whose actions are under review.

Coroner Michael Murphy said identities of undercover officers have been kept confidential in previous inquests "in very rare instances." Police would have to show justification for it, he added.

Murphy said he and other members of his office will discuss the issue with police and prosecutors to decide how to handle the situation. A possible course of action would be to make no effort to conceal the officer's identity at the inquest, which is a public court proceeding, but to ask the media not to use his name or his picture, Murphy said.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, opposes keeping the officer's identity confidential. In a situation as serious as a police shooting, he said, openness is necessary to ensure the public's confidence.

"While the need to protect the anonymity of an undercover officer is important, having a full public accounting of this type of incident is of utmost importance," Lichtenstein said. "There needs to be a public airing of what happened."

Regarding the inquest, he said: "Having a secret inquest is ill-advised ... We believe in public trials and public investigations. This is part of our democracy."

Sam Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who studies officer-involved shootings, agrees with Lichtenstein that the public's right to know overrides the need to keep the officer's identity secret.

"This is a very serious matter," he said.

Walker said he also saw problems with the fact that North Las Vegas police are handling the investigation the shooting even though it occurred in Metro's jurisdiction.

Metro officials said they left the investigation up to North Las Vegas police because it involved an officer from that department.

Civil libertarians say Metro could have provided an outside investigation that could have been more free of the conflict of interests inherent in police shooting investigations conducted by the same department whose officer fired his gun.

Walker, the professor from Omaha, said both Metro Police and North Las Vegas should have investigated the shooting jointly.

"It's a North Las Vegas officer and that department has a duty and a responsibility to investigate any shooting by their officers no matter where it occurs," he said. "But law enforcement agencies also have the duty to investigate any homicide that occurs in their jurisdiction."

Apolito, the professor from Dayton, also suggested that the investigation could have been conducted by both agencies.

The North Las Vegas officers involved in the raid notified Metro officials before going into Metro's jurisdiction to serve the search warrant and after the shooting, a Metro lieutenant responded to the scene of the shooting and another Metro officer helped protect the perimeter, police said.

But the investigation into the shooting was entirely in the hands of North Las Vegas Police, Lt. Tom Monahan, head of Metro's homicide section, said.

"They handle their own, we handle our own," he said.

Bedwell said there is no reason to doubt that North Las Vegas Police will thoroughly and objectively investigate the shooting.

"We have very few officer-involved shootings in North Las Vegas and all are investigated very thoroughly," he said.

North Las Vegas officers were involved in three shootings last year. One was fatal.